{"id":37242,"date":"2021-04-19T08:50:12","date_gmt":"2021-04-19T16:50:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/?p=37242"},"modified":"2021-04-19T08:50:12","modified_gmt":"2021-04-19T16:50:12","slug":"at-un-security-council-aaron-mat-debunks-opcws-syria-lies-and-confronts-us-uk-on-cover-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/2021\/04\/19\/at-un-security-council-aaron-mat-debunks-opcws-syria-lies-and-confronts-us-uk-on-cover-up\/","title":{"rendered":"At UN Security Council, Aaron Maté Debunks OPCW\u2019s Syria Lies and Confronts US, UK on Cover-Up"},"content":{"rendered":"

From The Grayzone<\/a>:<\/em><\/p>\n

Speaking to the United Nations Security Council, Aaron Mat\u00e9 of The Grayzone takes apart the OPCW\u2019s excuses for refusing to address the organization\u2019s Syria cover-up scandal.<\/p>\n

OPCW inspectors found no evidence to support allegations of a Syrian government chemical weapons attack in the city of Douma in April 2018. But their findings were suppressed, and the team was sidelined.<\/p>\n

The OPCW leadership now claims that \u201cmost of the analytical work took place\u201d in the \u201clast six months\u201d of the Douma investigation, when the original team was out of the picture. Comparing the OPCW\u2019s own published reports, Mat\u00e9 shows why that is demonstrably false.<\/p>\n

The bulk of the work was in fact carried out by the original team in the first weeks of the probe, and the \u201canalytical work\u201d conducted after their censorship is minor in scale and riddled with deceptions and unsupported conclusions.<\/p>\n

Mat\u00e9 also addresses a new claim by OPCW Director General Fernando Arias that \u201cI don\u2019t know why\u201d the OPCW\u2019s final Douma report \u201cwas contested.\u201d This is another demonstrably false claim, as Arias\u2019 own prior statements show.<\/p>\n

Mat\u00e9 also asks the US and UK ambassadors if they will support a new proposal from distinguished signatories \u2014 including five former OPCW officials \u2014 to let the OPCW\u2019s own Scientific Advisory Board assess the claims of the dissenting inspectors. The US and UK Ambassadors left the meeting \u2014 it is unclear when \u2014 and so did not respond.<\/p>\n